Pay exquisite attention.
“The chance to be part of this happens briefly. The invitation is not to show how inventive and imaginative you are. But how much you can notice what you're already part of. And appreciate it and share it. And then you'll get to the end of it, having had an awesome time” -Burgs
There is an energy that drives life forward. It seems ambivalent to the chattering of mind - for it carries on of its own accord. And while this life-driving is happening, it is easy to fall into the mythology of ourselves. To generate ad hoc reasons for how and why everything has come to pass. But when you get struck by the Now - when you are forced to Wake Up and you encounter a scenario your mind never considered - it is time to notice what you’re really part of. It is time to pay attention. Pay attention to what the present moment is asking. Pay attention to where you are, how you are, and what you are. And if this cannot be done, instead, pay attention to how we cling to parts of ourselves from a bygone age. For if it can be clung to - it is other than ourselves and we are not yet whole. If it is other than ourselves - then it has not been woven into the tapestry of our lives. If it is not been woven in - either let it in or let it go.
“All that I am, all that life has made me, every past experience that I have had— woven into the tissue of my life—I must give to the new experience. . . . We integrate our experience, and then the richer human being that we are goes into the new experience; again we give our self and always by giving rise above the old self ” Mary Parker Follett
But what if we don’t? What if we cling to old identities? Chaung Tzu writes on this.
"He who is content with himself has done a worthless work. Achievement is the beginning of failure. Fame is beginning of disgrace."
If you are content with what you have done - you are still abiding in the identity of the person who did it. But life keeps driving forward - so to remain in pride and achievement, or even regret and dismay, is to remain in the past. We can’t control outcomes - the world is too big and our ego is too small. All we have power over is how much we give ourselves to every new experience. Textures on the roadway of life will appear and our goal is to navigate them gracefully.
Life is texture.
The practice of meditation allows us to experience all the textures of the roadway, which is what the journey is all about. Through the practice of meditation, we begin to find that within ourselves there is no fundamental complaint about anything or anyone at all.” Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
I don’t think the notion of no fundamental complaint is intellectual in the slightest. Namely - it isn’t an opinion or a view that you can sensibly hold. In the narrative of our lives, of course there can be complaints - the roadway is textured and we may not like it! So we need to firmly resolve that this very real state of being is not accessible through the mind! Instead, we can embody the attitude of no complaint through action. Through surrender. Through going with the flow.
“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety” Abraham Maslow
And it’s horrific to step forward - because it burns. It burns away illusion. It burns away solidity. And what could be more painful than the falling away of what never truly was?
“A life truly lived constantly burns away veils of illusion, burns away what is no longer relevant, gradually reveals our essence, until, at last, we are strong enough to stand in our naked truth” Marion Woodman
Our naked truth pays exquisite attention. It cannot help but notice the worldly plane in all of its glory. It cannot help but appreciate the magic in the felt presence of ordinary experience. It cannot help but find a way to protect love, to spread love, and to be love.
If you are at the precipice of the unknown - stand still - and pay exquisite attention.
It is as it is.